"The Republic of Eden remains open to the prospect of peaceful dialogue and cooperation with Indonesia to resolve this dispute through diplomatic means. We have already withdrawn our vessel from their territorial waters and have already attempted to negotiate a peaceful settlement to this whole affair. But so long as their specious allegations against us remain unwithdrawn, our stance remains firm: we will not tolerate their slander, nor will we remain quiet as they tarnish our reputation in the international community."Thank you for your time, Madame President and other distinguished members of the security council. I yield the floor," Ambassador Foster finished, then sat back down in her seat. She had presented nearly all of the evidence Eden had, choosing only to withhold the information about the submarine that was responsible for the jamming to begin with.The back-and-forth continued, with impassioned pleas, rigorous arguments, and tense exchanges between the two na
A few minutes before the UN general meeting took place Aron was in one of the rooms of his VR mansion together with Rina. They were waiting for the hearing to begin and would watch it through the Edenian ambassador's glasses. There was no other way to watch it, as the hearing was behind closed doors with no recording equipment allowed.In fact, Aron and Rina weren't alone; everyone who had sufficient security clearance and was in possession of a pair of Aron's AR glasses was doing the same. John was watching it with the high-level officers of the military, the leader of Nyx was watching it with her subordinates, Sarah with Felix, and the other companies' presidents were watching it together as well. Sarah and Felix hadn't joined Aron and Rina only because they could only handle so much PDA and their limits had been reached far, far earlier.Alexander and his Esparian counterpart were watching it with their staffs as well, meaning that everyone with the power to do anything
A few weeks prior.As Aron fell from the sky with no parachute, the plane that had dropped him entered a wide holding pattern, as if it was observing his actions.He continued falling, and despite not having any breathing apparatus to help him breathe in the thin air at 15,000 Meters, he had no trouble breathing. Once he reached 12,000 Meters above the ground, he began casting a floating rune on himself and his falling speed decreased further and further until he came to a full stop at about 10,000 Meters. It was the average altitude at which international commercial airplanes flew, but he wasn't worried about being spotted since the entire airspace was restricted, meaning that any commercial airplane that entered would be shot down.He then cast a wide shield with a radius of about a kilometer with him at the center, then just waited for a notification.{The satellites are ready,} Nova announced in his ear. All of the satellites above him, whether they be in geo
Back in the present, in a secure meeting room somewhere in the universal simulation, the time-dilated meeting was still ongoing under Protocol 404.Stephen Hawking continued his presentation, explaining the situation in more detail for the remaining humans who thought the mass was just some novel thing the scientists and researchers in Lab City had discovered. They felt the same as Aron initially had, that as long as it wasn't an immediate nuclear war or something, they would easily be able to handle whatever it was.They had obviously forgotten that they'd been called to this meeting venue as a result of Protocol 404, so Dr. Hawking had to explain to them the importance of the green object on the screen."The object, although very far from us at about seven light years, is heading toward us at a quarter of light speed," he said. The humans in the room finally understand the implication of what was being said. Although they weren't astronauts, nor did they
"Something on the island is causing the production of mana in such a high quantity that the equipment capable of seeing it shows us as a pulsar star due to the planet's rotation. That means we're constantly sending a beacon telling anyone else that's capable of detecting it that 'WE ARE HERE'. The only question that remains, now, is how fast is the beacon traveling through the cosmos?" As Dr. Hawking said that, the screen behind him zoomed out until the entire planet was visible, then zoomed out again until it was the size of a marble. The still image on the screen began to move, the flashing light of mana flickering on and off like someone who knows nothing about Morse code playing with a light switch. From the side, it almost appeared that Earth was a dying pulsar star, ejecting the last of its mass before it goes supercritical and explodes in a last, desperate act of wholesale self-.Aron watched with a look of fear on his face as he came to the realization that they had b
"So we have anywhere between ten and twenty-eight years before they arrive. We can prepare for the encounter slowly at the start, but we have to deal with everything holding us back on Earth and speed things up once we have a united front," Aron said when the break was over."Before we can begin full preparations, we need to be a united entity. So, since that isn't likely to happen on its own, we'll move to the second option, where I take over and unite the world under a single government, with myself as the sole ruler and ARES as the only military force."The others in the room paled; they knew that although their chances against the coming moon—if it escalated to war upon contact—would be higher if they fought as a united force, but the UN would never have that ability. No government would ever give up their power and authority, partly due to greed and partly because of the joys of power and authority. So if someone had to unite the world, it might
UN headquarters, New York.The days following the UNSC resolution regarding the dispute between Indonesia and Eden were filled with more meetings, both open and behind closed doors. The UN bylaws required them to announce any voting results and disclose their resolutions on their website within a certain amount of time, so everyone was busily arguing over how to divide the benefits from the Edenians. After all, in the eyes of the Big Five, Eden didn't deserve to have anything, especially considering its "poor and impoverished" status. And today was the day that the president of the UN Security Council, Ambassador Jennifer Walker of the United States, would send out a press release to the world and hold a press conference announcing the UN's decision.She was quite pleased with herself, having won quite a few benefits for her country. Primarily, America would be taking over the oil extraction and the battery technology from the Edenian Navy, Russia would be taking Bioge
"Arms embargo, import and export sanctions, travel bans, natural resource sanctions, financial sanctions, and even freezing the assets of citizens that are held in banks outside our country, including our own foreign currency reserve that's currently held in trust with the US Federal Reserve. Man they're desperate to get their hands on our tech," Aron said as he read the nearly endless list of sanctions.The list had details of what exactly in those specified categories were being banned. For the financial sanctions it included freezing of the assets of every high-ranking member of the government, including John and the other generals of ARES, together with Alexander and his cabinet members. Aron was only saved from it since he had nothing connecting him to the government that would warrant his inclusion in the sanctions, at least not publicly.Together with their assets being frozen, money that was owed to Eden from other countries that hadn't paid them yet was also f